Brief Guide to Cutting Flowers:

The following are harvesting and conditioning techniques used for the most common garden cut flowers.  Any flower not specifically mentioned below, and there are hundreds that could be used as cut flowers, will benefit from the following.  

• Cut flowers before they are fully open, usually halfway open and showing color.

Cut the longest possible stem to retain the most options when arranging the flowers.

Be sure to have a pail of water with you when cutting flowers and place the cut stems into the water as soon as you cut them.

Cut early in the morning when plant tissues are firm.

Use sharp tools to cut, not crush, the stems.

Re-cut the stems underwater once inside.  When cut in the air, stems will take up a bubble of air that inhibits further translocation of water to the flower, reducing the life of the arrangement. 

Stand the cut flowers loosely in a darkened and cool area for several hours.  This reduces the transpiration of the leaves which in turn retains water. 

If desired, add floral preservative or a teaspoon of sugar and teaspoon of bleach to the water in the vase. 

Arrange, place in your favorite room and enjoy.

Pictures taken July 14th	Botanical Name	Common Name	Vase life	Notes
	Ageratum	Ageratum	7 days	Split stems
	Amaranthus	Love Lies Bleeding	7 days	Use foliage and flowers
	Ammi	Bishop's Weed	4-5 days	Queen Anne's lace substitute.
	Antirrhinum	Snapdragon	7 days
	Aster	Aster	7 days
	Calendula	Pot Marigold	5-7 days	Edible
	Celosia	Cockscomb	7 days	Fresh or dried
	Clarkia	Godetia	5 days	Frost hardy in fall
	Cleome	Spider Flower	7 days	Tall, some thorns
	Coleus	Coleus	7 days	Foliage
	Consolida	Larkspur	5-8 days	Fresh or dried
	Cosmos	Cosmos	4 days
	Dahlia	Dahlia	5 days
	Gerbera	Gerbera	14 days	Split stems - dip in boiling water
	Gladiolas	Gladiolas	7-14 days
	Gomphrena	Globe Amaranth	7 days	Fresh or dried
	Helianthus	Sunflower	7 days	Scald stems
	Helichrysum	Strawflower	7 days	Fresh or dried
	Heliotropium	Heliotrope	7 days	Fragrant
	Lathyrus	Sweet Pea	6 days	Fragrant
	Lavatera	Mallow	4 days
	Nicotiana	Flowering Tobacco	6-8 days	Fragrant
	Nigella	Love-in-a-mist	7 days	Fresh or dried (pods)
	Phlox	Phlox	5 days	Fragrant
	Salpiglossis		3-7 days
	Salvia	Sage	5-10 days
	Tagetes	Marigold	7-10 days	Cut with tight centers
	Trapoleum	Nasturtium	3-5 days	Edible flowers
	Verbena	Verbena	7 days
	Zinnia	Zinnia	5-10 days

What's In Bloom -   Week of July 21st, 2003.

     Just wandered through the garden and took pictures of what looked really nice.  Other flowers are also in bloom, just didn't make it onto this particular collection. 

Pictures taken July 21st, 2003
	Agastache 'Premium Blush' Mint family, fragrant foliage, attracts butterflies and hummingbirds.
	Ageratum 'Blue Horizon'  Actually a deeper blue than shown in this photo.
	Ageratum 'White Bouquet'
	Amaranthus 'Love Lies Bleeding' Good luck putting that in a bunch.
	Amaranthus 'Opopeo' Same goes for this monster.
	Ammi majus
	Angelonia
	Anthemis tinctora 'Kelway's Gold'
	Antirhinnum 'Rocket Mix' Snaps
	Calendula
	Celosia 'Punky Red'  Use fresh or dried.  Very vibrant color in person.
	Centaurea 'Frosty Mix'
	Cleome 'Solo' No thorns.
	Cleome 'Sparkler Mix'
	Consolida 'Blue Cloud' Great filler material.
	Consolida 'Sublime Formula Mix'
	Coreopsis 'Hohe Mix'
	Cosmos 'Sensation Mix'
	Cynoglossum 'Blue Shower'
	Eucalyptus
	Eucalyptus (another species)
	Gypsophila 'Covent Garden'
	Helianthus 'Sunbeam'
	Helianthus 'Sunrich Lemon'
	Helianthus 'Valentine'
	Lagurus 'Hare's tail Grass' The grass is fuzzy, so I figured...Hey, why not make the picture fuzzy too.
	Lavandula 'Lavender Lady'
	Lavatera 'Silver Cup'
	Limonium 'Pacific Mix'
	Limonium 'Russian Statice'
	Matricaria 'Roya' Feverfew
	Molucella 'Bells of Ireland'
	Pennisetum 'Purple Majesty'
	Rudbeckia 'Rustic Colors'
	Rudbeckia 'Prarie Sun' AAS Winner - 2003
	Salvia 'Coral Nymph'
	Salvia 'Lady in Red'
	Salvia 'Victoria'
	Salvia 'Oxford Blue'
	Scabiosa 'Starflower' Can be used fresh (light blue) or dried (seed pod in middle of picture)
	Talinum 'Kingswood Gold' Much better in person.  Very airy feel, chartreuse foliage.
	Tithonia 'Torch'
	Verbascum
	Verbena 'Sweet Dream White'
All Pictures copyright 2006 Berger's Springledge LLC

Perennial

again

Snapdragons in the thousands

Asters just starting to bloom this week.

Jupiter's Beard

4-5' tall

3' tall

I can't not take a picture of this flower!  (no double negatives there)

mostly annuals

Almost a Butterscotch color in real life.

Darker orange than 'Aztec Sun'

Nice fresh or dried

Perennial

Huge fragrant blooms - short window of picking opportunity

Perennial

Use fresh or dried

Perennial

Very brilliant and bright red.

Long Stems